Why I Do What I Do

So, if you've been reading this blog for some time, you know I don't work.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I milk cows at a local dairy farm (Moooooo!) once a week and I do photography as often as I can but other than that, I'm home.  Almost every day I can be found here at the house washing clothes, making meals, making sure everybody has their necessary prescription medications and favorite cereals, waking up early with the Gardener and getting the kids on the bus in time for school.  Most of what I do goes unnoticed by my family but they don't seem to mind coming home to a relatively clean house and  a hot meal on the table every evening.  And it's days like today that I don't regret our family's decision to do with a little less income in exchange for flexibility.

Last night shortly after we tucked Mae into her bed, she came downstairs holding her hand to her ear and whimpering about it hurting.  She was up off and on most of the night holding a warm compress against her ear and occupying the big recliner in our living room.  This morning when there was no improvement to her ouchy ear, I called school to say she would not be there today and made an appointment at the pediatrician's office.  I didn't have to find somebody to fill in for me for the day or rush around to find a sitter and rearrange my whole schedule. Nope, this is what I'm here for. 

I See London, I see France....

(A late Wardrobe Wednesday for sure but I have a good excuse! This is Spring Break week. The Gardener is still laid off and all up in my business and the kids are not in school, so I've been a little busy. [Except for Today because the girls had a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's house last night and won't be home til this afternoon and the Gardener is off raking someone's lawn. I'm home alone!] Once again my blog has taken a back seat to laundry and cooking and cleaning and entertaining the kids. After all it is Spring Break and I don't think it's too much to ask that my kids go outside and enjoy the nice Spring weather. But... the weather is still cold and windy. I can't with a good conscience bundle them up and send them outside to play in the grain bin playhouse so I can post a few photos to my blog without having to break up a fight or clean up a mess. Hopefully next week I can get back to actually writing something here instead of just posting a bunch of photos. Although some days I don't feel like writing and just like to look at some pictures...)

I swear this kid has been practically living in this dress for weeks now. The gold sash that she absolutely loves is all torn and frayed and barely hanging on. After close examination to the sash, it has been determined (by me) that it is well beyond the repair stage. I offered to remove (Cut it off) the sash all together and replace it with some other flashy fabric, but my suggestion was quickly shot down and Binny ran off yelling "WE'RE KEEPIN' IT!"

By the way THIS is how Binny watches TV:


I think the nickname Little Miss Wiggle Butt definitely applies here.


And THIS is how we do garbage, recycling and composting in our house. Watch carefully!

Hours of fun I tell you!

Why having A Messy Purse Saved Me From Being Stuck In Long Line Hell

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, in fact I know I have but let me say this again, I LOVE COSTCO. Their produce rocks (and much of it is organic), they sell feta cheese by the brick, their bagels are fresh and they sell the huge bottles (1.75L) of Irish creme liqueur for $18, need I say more? Well the other day the girls and I went to stock up on the usual stuff and I maneuvered the extra large cart over to the checkout. I was even on the ball enough to remember to take the reusable grocery bags out of the car and into the store with me, most days I forget them on the front seat.

The cashier rings up all of my purchases and gives me the total. "$84.60 please" I quick scan my wallet, $46 in cash. I think to myself, Oh well Costco takes debit, so I rummage around my ridiculously disorganized purse, (just a warning, if you follow this link you will also see my hairy legs, sorry about that) locate my debit card and swipe it through the card thingy. No dice. I look at the cashier like "should I try it again?" She gets this frustrated look on her face and says to me "debit cards aren't working right now, why don't you go stand in that line while we try to fix it." The line she was pointing to was about 8 super-sized Costco carts long filled with women who look as if they hate standing in lines. At the very front of the line is an employee huddled around the now dismantled ATM kiosk, on the phone that is apparently the main line to the bank, and she's stuck on hold. I frantically look at my cart trying to decide which items I will sacrifice in order to pay cash and not stand in the line to nowhere. (By the way, the only credit card Costco accepts is AmEx and I don't have one of those.) Mind you my kids lost their patience way back at the second free food sample and want nothing more than to get the hell out of the store. The cashier then asks kind of sheepishly, "you don't happen to have your checkbook along do you?" Ding, ding, ding!

More rummaging through my purse but eventually I come up with it, pay for my stuff and waltz right past that ungodly long line and say under my breath, "Suckas!" Score one for the disorganized woman with the 2 bored children!

*I have been meaning to stop carrying my checkbook around in my purse because I almost never use it and I'm sure it wouldn't be fun if I accidentally lost it, but I think I'll keep it around for a while longer.

She's A Terrific Mom

I was all fired up last night and ready to blog about it, but it's never a good idea (for me at least) to blog when I'm angry, so I slept on it, or more accurately tried to sleep on it. To keep it short and as sweet as possible I will say that I had a phone conversation with a first degree relative (that narrows it down almost completely) yesterday that irked me. My relative was going on and on about how a woman he knows is "a terrific mom." Her kids listen to her every command, aren't allowed any indulgences because she's piss broke (his words, not mine) and have never even been to McDonald's. This mom he speaks of is roughly my age (not yet 30) has 4 children all with different fathers, sporadically receives child support when her delinquent baby daddies manage to hold a job long enough that their wages can be garnished.

He feels so bad for her and her situation that he frequently slips her $100 bills to help support her and her 4 children. What? I think it's all fine and good to help out a person in need, but come on. After 2 or 3 kids and mounting bills she decided to have another child with another deadbeat. I'm sorry but this seems like a woman who hasn't learned her lesson, not a woman who needs a handout. And why isn't her family stepping up to help her out financially instead of relying on the kindness of strangers?

What ever happened to the idea of having children when the time is right? What about a stable income and a roof over your head or a committed relationship? I heard a statistic recently that 45% of all babies born in the U.S. are born to unwed mothers. Almost half! While some mothers choose to do the solo parenting thing, I think that is the exception to the rule.

My first child was born 2 weeks after my 22nd Birthday, but I had been married for a year, we owned our own home and never once needed someone to slip me money so I could buy formula and diapers. My husband and I have never been rolling in money, far from it, but we live the best we can with what we have and not beyond. Same goes for mortgages and credit cards. We pay our mortgage every month and try not to carry a balance on our credit cards because it's not responsible. Having more children than you can afford is to me irresponsible. After he (my relative) could tell that I was not impressed with his grass roots philanthropy he said in an effort to cheer me up "she reminds me a lot of you." Not exactly the words I wanted to hear.

I'm sorry if I've offended anyone, but this is how I feel and I needed to get it off my chest. I promise my next post will be a more positive one. And to think this was the sanitized version.

Screw It, I'll Make My Own

Today Binny and I went to Target to get some supplies for the house. We made our way through the store and past checkouts without too much trouble, other than Binny's minor avalanche of bar soaps in Aisle 7. I paid for my purchases and was immediately overcome by the smell of fresh coffee from the Starbucks directly across from the checkouts. It's almost unbearable for me to walk through Target on an empty stomach without coming out of the store with something very unhealthy hanging out of my mouth. I rummaged around in my messy purse, found the almost 5 dollars needed to buy my coffee while steering my cart to the back of the line. Then I saw her. The wife of one of my husband's co-workers. She's not a bad person, in fact she is a very nice person, but way too much for me. She's also a SAHM (stay at home mom) so we end up running into each other fairly often, usually at Target. Our children are about the same ages (she has 2 boys) so she thinks we must be friends. Our kids have never played with hers, the closest they came to being friends was last summer when her youngest and Binny (my youngest) had their tonsils removed on the same day. Her son's hospital room was right next door to Binny's so she popped in all day long to chat, and insisted I go get myself a cup of soup from the family lounge. "It's free, ya know."

So I did what any person who hates awkward and painful Target run-ins would do. I whipped that cart around so fast, I don't think she saw me. I saved 5 bucks, and didn't have to talk to that crazy woman. I came home and made myself a cup of instant coffee. Not a Starbucks Mocha but it did the trick.

Let's Play 3 More Bites!

Yes, 3 More Bites. The exciting hour-long (if you're lucky, usually ends up taking all evening) dinner game full of exciting prizes. Exciting if you are like me and consider my fabulous chocolate chip cheesecake an exciting prize. But sometimes even the promise of delicious desserts isn't enough to make a winner out of my children. They just don't seem to like to eat. Weird huh?

Well no, not really that weird as I may be partially responsible. I have always been a light eater. Don't get me wrong, I love food, but eating an entire meal has been one thing that I can rarely do. I know that portion control in this country is out of control and the rate that many Americans eat their food is downright alarming. Seriously, in the time it takes me to eat my salad or butter my roll, most everyone I know would be rummaging around for dessert or grabbing seconds. At home my slowness is not out of the ordinary because I am the mom and at dinner time that makes me the runner, so I'm always late to sit down after fetching milk and napkins and cleaning up spilt milk and retrieving more napkins. My slowness isn't limited to our house, it happens out at restaurants too. I confess, I am a slow eater, but then again I have never had a weight problem so it seems to be working for me.

I am afraid my children have caught my slow eating gene and it has morphed into an "I am so full, I can't take another bite gene." I just hope they pass it on to their kids so I can sit back and watch the bargaining. Oh yes the bargaining, apparently you've never dined with us. My brother calls it a 3 hour commitment, so seriously if I ever invite you to my house for dinner, be prepared, you'll be here a while. I may even refer you to this post before you may accept my invite.

It's not that my kids are overly picky eaters. Granted they refuse to eat fish and my husband's grandmother's cooking but I can't blame them, I do the same. Other than the aversion to fish and Grandma's mystery casserole, they are fairly adventurous eaters, more so than most kids their ages. I know this by the number of reject snacks I get back on snack day. What kid doesn't like bananas or veggie pizza? Almost all of the veggie pizza (the kind where you flatten out the tube crescent rolls bake it, slather on cream cheese then add fresh veggies to the top) came back in the container I sent, of course it came back to my house in horrible condition after riding around in my daughter's backpack for an hour, but I'm pretty sure it was in an edible state up until the bus ride home. Same with the bananas. I sent 18 half bananas (dipped in lemon juice so they wouldn't turn brown, thank you very much) and got 12 back. Is my math that bad or did my snacks get the thumbs down?. Anyhow, what I mean to say is that my kids don't have a problem with variety, just the volume.

Last night I didn't feel like cooking (yeah it happens to all of us) so to further irritate the devout Christians in my community I committed the ultimate sin and ordered a pizza on Sunday. Hey, they were open! I plopped one small piece on each of the girls' plates and instantly got the stink eye. They love pizza but still they complained. After Hubby and I were done and putting dinner away, they still had hardly touched their food. Then almost simultaneously they both asked "how many bites?" For the first round Hubby and I try to set the mark high with an answer of 7 or 8. As time goes on and I start to lose patience, they whittle me down to 3 bites. "But they better be good bites, no funny business!" If I'm lucky they'll finish their 3 bites, but more often than I'd like to admit, the girls are still sitting at the table when it's time to get ready for bed. Then never fail, they say they are hungry right after brushing their teeth. I can't win.

Spring Break Day 2

I think we have finally recovered from our fun little weekend cold. Hubby went back to work and I took the girls to the children's museum in the city today. (does that statement make me sound like a country hick?) I packed up the girls this morning and shoved my camera in purse and we headed out. About 10 minutes down the road Binny starts wiggling around in her seat. "Binny, what's the matter?" "Nothing Mom" The wiggling stops for about a minute then her wiggling picks up in energy and now her legs are kicking into the seat in front of her (thankfully the empty passenger seat and not mine. Although I am really short and have the seat all the way forward-granny style so her feet don't quite touch). "Binny do you have use the potty?" "uh-huh" "Well, you're going to have to hold it until we get to Grandma's house" (half-way between our house and our destination). Her complaining got worse and before I could reach the next exit, she announced in a very deflated voice, "I peed my pants" or more accurately her tights, skirt, and booster seat. Yay! I haven't carried around a diaper bag in years, so what is a mom to do? I pulled off at the next exit and into a Starbuck's to use their huge, clean bathroom and to order myself a much needed Mocha to go. I followed Binny and her big wet spot into the bathroom and helped her peel off the wet layers. She finished up as I washed out her skirt in the sink. I made her pull up her clingy wet tights and undies minus the now super wet but clean skirt. We got back in the car and I did the next logical thing... I laid her wet skirt on the defroster to dry, and WOW did that work like a charm!

By the time we made it to Grandma's house the skirt was dry, then and I did a switcharoo. I gave her the now dry skirt to wear around the house while I washed everything including the booster seat cover and dried it all in the dryer. Not quite as quick as the defroster but that just seemed too weird even for me to have that much clothing on my dash as I make my way through downtown.

We made it to the museum, had a great time and I made sure we made a stop in the bathroom before leaving for home.

Little Singers

You know when you get a song stuck in your head and find yourself walking around the grocery store singing "Hooked on a Feeling?" Well apparently it happens to kids too. I picked up the girls from school the other day to take Mae to a Dr. appointment. As I was waiting for the girls to come out of class, I could hear a little boy singing. At first it just sounded like a bunch of mismatched numbers. Then all of a sudden it was clear. He was singing "867-5309 Jenny." He sang the whole thing! The mom standing next to me laughed so hard I thought she was going to pee herself.



Just last week as Binny and I were waiting for the bus I heard her singing the Michael Franti-Spearhead song "Light Up Ya Lighter." ... At least she finally stopped singing Jingle Bells.



Now make my day and insert a catchy song into my brain.

Color War

Our morning routine wouldn't be complete without a screaming, throw yourself on the floor fit. Usually Mae because she's the only one who really needs to be out of the house in the morning (besides Hubby of course, he's long gone before I even wake the children). This morning was no exception and was actually a bit enhanced. You see today is Mae's turn to provide a snack for the class, which means I had the extra task of preparing snacks for 18 students.

While I packaged up a dozen and a half bananas and baggies of green grapes, I suggested Mae pick out some clothes and get dressed. I reminded her that today is Red Grammer day at school and all the children were encouraged to wear red. Excited to have an outfit request, she ran into the bedroom to rummage through the big pile of to-be-folded clothing. She comes out with a pair of pink tights with red hearts on them, a denim skirt and a new sweater with pink, white and black stripes. I suggested she ditch the sweater and wear her cute shirt with the stripes and hearts on it. Very cute with the skirt and those tights. With that, the whining and face contorting started "You said I could wear red. Waahaaaa. My tights have red on them and this sweater is my favorite (she's hasn't had the chance to wear it yet, but whatever. Not the point.)and DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT PINK IS MADE OF??? RED AND WHITE!!!"

After that outburst, I said no to the new sweater and she ended up wearing the shirt with the stripes and hearts.

Let me guess. This never happens at your house, right?

This is Interesting

I'm surprised I haven't seen this on any blogs. We don't have cable, so I just heard about this today.

This is Bristol Palin's (you know Sarah Palin's teen daughter who was pregnant during the election) first ever interview on Fox News. That sounds pretty safe right? They treat her Mom pretty well, why would this be any different? But then they had to go and ask her sneaky questions.

I love her views on abstinence. Bright girl that Bristol.

Day from Hell and it's not even 10:00 AM

This morning I started a post about how today was going to be beautiful weather wise and I had all these great things planned, but it seems as if the universe just won't cooperate with me today. I just can't win. Binny woke up with the worst bed head ever, but her Pull-up was dry, so that one's about even but her hair is still out of control and the girls insisted on wearing skirts today because the temp is supposed to be a very warm 60 degrees this afternoon, but this morning as we rushed out for Mae's 8:00 dentist appointment (never doing that early ever again) it was still a chilly 40 degrees. When we got home from the dentist, the girls had breakfast because of course they were slow to get themselves ready this morning as almost every morning. They started to eat and decided that they needed something better to drink than the glasses of milk that I had poured for them. I walked through the kitchen on my way to put in a load of laundry and there I see Mae prying open a can of Root Beer with a butter knife. Before I can even say "What the heck are you doing?" the seal breaks and root beer goes shooting across my kitchen and all over the girls. Binny was seated right next to Mae with a can of Sprite but was waiting for her turn with the butter knife. That was it for me, I lost it.

"What were you thinking? Why are you having a soda for breakfast? Did you shake it up on purpose?" Well of course she didn't do it on purpose, it fell on the floor from the top cabinet as she stood on the chair (allegedly) to get the stolen drinks, but at the moment all I could see was brown sugary liquid dripping off of the counter, the walls and Mae. I feel horrible for yelling at her. I apologized and I really do think she understands why I was so upset with her. It must be hard for her being our Guinea pig the oldest, and we do hold her at a higher standard of behavior because she is older and is her sister's biggest influence. Is that fair of us? Maybe not, but that's life and we all have to deal with what we've been given whether it's a short temper or a strong willed child.

Oh and while we were out of the house for 1 hour, my dogs ate an entire bag of Hershey kisses, foil and all that we were saving to use in the girls' school Valentine bags. I know chocolate isn't good for dogs, but by now what haven't they eaten? The upside? The foil should be beautiful with the sunshine dancing off of it when it makes it through my dogs and onto my front lawn. That will brighten my day!

Words This Mom Never Likes To Hear

"Maaah-om, Doopie peed on the sofa"

Oh yeah, the dog I allow to lay on the sofa because of his arthritic legs, just soiled my sofa. Now before you vomit in your coffee, I haven't determined whether it was drool or pee. It could just be drool but still that's pretty gross. I took a sniff, but can't tell. Is there a way to determine what the wet spot is without sending a sample to the state crime lab???

Not that this will shock anyone, but this is not the first time we've had a bodily fluid spill on our furniture. When I was pregnant with Mae, we decided that it was time to get some real furniture that wasn't purchased at a thrift store or pulled out of a musty old basement. I was all concerned about having nice new clean furniture for when the baby arrived. What was I thinking? It must have been the nesting, or it was the fact that I wasn't a mom yet and had no idea that these children (and pets) would ruin not only my furniture but any surface that will accept a permanent marker. We bought the whole furniture set, sofa, love seat (short sofa), recliner, coffee table and end tables. We opted for the scotch guard protector for the extra hundred bucks, but really is a little spray on fabric protector any match for dog pee or super-explosive baby vomit? I think not. After a few spilled baby bottles on the sofa when Mae was a babe, I thought my furniture had seen it all. Enter Binny. Binny was my puker. As an infant Binny had so many digestive issues that her Dr. thought would be cleared up by simply feeding her soy formula. Not only did the soy formula not work, but it made the nasty puke smell even worse. I remember so clearly, one afternoon I was rocking Binny in the chair (the only thing that stopped her constant crying) and BOOM! Vomit everywhere. All over me, her, the chair and Mae who was also on my lap enjoying some cuddle time with mom. I had to call hubby over to remove the children one by one because I didn't dare move and spread the mess. I scrubbed and scrubbed that damn chair until the fabric started to pill and the smell was STILL THERE. It took me a few weeks of daily scrubbing and way too much much Febreeze to finally rid the chair of the baby puke stench. And 4 years later, we still have the chair. How gross are we?

School Update

I heard back from the principal today. She listened to me, kind of. Our whole conversation lasted less than 3 minutes. I could tell she felt uncomfortable about the whole topic of religion in public school and quickly ended that by saying that when she started as principal this fall, she brought up the issue but was convinced to leave it alone because of strong community support.

If we ignore it, it will go away.

And the "Leroy the redneck reindeer" song. She asked "what didn't you like about it? I gave her the definition of redneck and said that I thought the use of it in an elementary school program was inappropriate and offensive. What may be acceptable in adult comedy routines may not be taken the same way when it comes from the mouths of children. She took no claim for any of the song choices and said she would pass my message on to the music teacher.

I still feel unheard and now singled out as the wimpy- can't take a joke, heathen. :(

I think I 'll just let it go until next year. Before the practice even begins, I will have a conversation with the music teacher and express my concerns. What other choice do I have?

Mommy Belly

Blogger, Kelly from Heathen Family Revival bared her belly this morning on her own blog, and on a blog called The Belly Project. Very interesting, go check it out, unless bellies scare you. Definitely a worthwhile click. Bellies of all shapes and sizes.

So, after I insisted Kelly show hers, I promised to show mine.

Ready?

Here I am 40 weeks pregnant with Binny (my second child)

Today

and just for fun, here's Binny's after her umbilical hernia repair.

Friendly Discussion?

Apparently I irriatated one of my faithful readers this morning with this post.

Sam, a longtime friend decided that he needed to respond and doing so in my comment section wasn't enough so wrote a whole post about it. Here it is in case you don't feel like clicking through:

You want to know what I don’t get, NOW. The National Organization of Women, which supported Bill Clinton because he was a democrat, even though he slept around on Hillary. Think about it. An organization whose mission is to advance women’s rights and speak out in defense of women in need, support a philanderer.While it should be said, I lean right, and do support the W., it should be noted that I support the long-range vision that I feel he has on certain issues. But what that doesn’t mean is that I support him and 100% of his actions, policies and political actions JUST because he is a Republican.I am for an unbiased political and socio-economic discussion of Middle America in the lower-middle class, like I think my friend Ali has as an underlying motive in her blog, but today I think she went a little overboard.She wrote in I am a Hard Line Democrat What Would Jesus Do:My daughter's class sang "Jesus Christ is born" and the second grade sang "Mary did you know?" What the hell? This is a public school! I know this is a community with strong Christian beliefs, but come on, this is a government funded PUBLIC school for EVERYONE, regardless of religious affiliation. It seems that I 'm always fighting the issue of what kinds of religion my children are being taught behind my back. Am I just making too much of this? Does this happen in other public schools?To which I responded, which I am not posting, but you can go there if you feel the need to read the comment and the next comment by Ali.This is where I struggle as an American with our political system. While one candidate may be too far left, the other candidate may be too far right. The majority of people, or at least electors, picks a candidate, and then the majority of America spends the next 4-years complaining, and posting “Shave the Date – Get Rid of Your Bush” logos on their mommy blogs.Pat Buchanan, ran for the Office of the President in 2000, I believe, and prior to that, when he was bashing Clinton the way today’s democrats bash Bush, he sounded like a right-wing member of a certain socialist group that overtook most of Europe in the 1930’s… While Ali and her “woe is the religious fundamentals being taught my children,” sounds like a certain style of government that swept the majority of Asia, and a cigar making county in the Caribbean.So there you have it. You’re too far right, and you are a WWII German, and too far left, you are a Red Commie. But I am not trying to judge, or intentionally label (except maybe for Ali). Rather, I am trying to live the importance of patience, foresight, and a worldview.When Ali wrote, “I don't have a problem with Christmas, but I do have a problem with a public school telling my children that Jesus died for their sins,” the first thing I thought, ok, she’s an atheist. This is why she hates Christmas programs at her school, that force her kids to sing Christian songs about a man, who, lets be honest here, I believe did die for our sins. [Editors note: her kids got a crap load of presents for the religious holiday of Christmas. Will she return them, as the holiday is religious? She had her children pose with Jolly ol’ Saint Nick (Santa Claus). Will she burn those? Can she have it both ways?]For all you public school parents, will you consider complaining when The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is read aloud to your children, or they see the play? It’s about God you know? Or will you force your children instead to sit in a corner by themselves and read The Golden Compass? It’s about atheism!Sure I don’t have kids, but I was once a kid, and not too long ago. Granted, Ali lives in a town that is dominated by Dutch Reformers, but I grew up less than 5 miles away from where she now lives, so I think I have a basis to talk. I went to school, and with my agnostic (for lack of a better word) friend NRB, and talked about religion in open dialog at school between our friends and us. No one complained. No one got upset. Around Christmas, we sang religious songs at public school, read books with religious themes.It’s children singing – the most beautiful sound in the world. I think Ali missed the point, and let her surroundings tarnish the sight and memory of happy children; of her children happy.I think I have to say it… America was founded on Christian ideals. You like freedom? You like tolerance? You like the federal government share the wealth with people less fortunate (welfare programs, not necessarily welfare)? Lets face it. You like Christian fundamentals. Hell, it’s the same as Jewish fundamentals, and Muslim fundamentals, but that doesn’t sound good in a time of war where Gaza and Israel are fighting.I liked learning those fundamentals AT HOME. And I liked learning fundamentals of various other religions at school. I learned Existentialistic philosophy in Public School; lived it for a while, and to a point still do, but I believe what my parents taught me, what I learned in Bible school, and what was reinforced when I re-found religion in my late 20’s.Public school gave me knowledge. My parents gave me the tools to use that knowledge.So what’s Ali to do? I don’t know. Like most Americans, I am sure she is not 100% happy with the county in the first place, and now, with the economy the way that it is, I am sure some of those feelings are coming to the surface. Obama may correct the economy, but I know he isn’t going to take “Can You See What I See” out of holiday programs.In times of crisis, people seek the basics, and many seek religion and faith to get them through. If Ali believed Jesus did die for our sins, maybe she wouldn’t be as negative toward a side-bar to a good education that her children are receiving despite an economy in the crapper.

My response:

Well Sam,
Thank you for the very public lashing. I write what I feel, and I feel that kindergarten aged children are not able to make such huge life changing decisions like religion, in a public school. I was raised Unitarian (look it up) and believe that all kinds of religous views are valid and very much a personal choice. My kids have in no way been harmed by me expressing how I feel on MY blog.

I can shave my bush on inaguguration day if I want to and you can buy shotgun shells(not implying that you will but that's your right if you so choose.) That's my whole point, the choice.I don't think that singing a couple of Christmas songs will hurt anyone, and yes my kids did get presents on Christmas delivered by Santa himself. That doesn't mean that we can disregard church, state separation. Christmas for my family means something different than the standard. We celebrate the season, family togetherness, giving, and dare I say magic. Thank you for your opinion and what I hope will continue to be a civil discussion.

I didn't think my little mommy rant would cause such a stir. Maybe my language was a bit rough and I probably could have said it differently; but I still feel that a public school is no place to be endorsing a specific religion, whether in song or otherwise. There are plenty of Christmas/ holiday songs that could have been used. I want my children to see that other religions exist and I certainly don't see that happening here.

I respect Sam and his opinions and am thankful for this lively discussion. He also (from reading the same post ) doesn't like the "shave the date" button on my sidebar. Well Sam, this is my mommy blog and if that means talking about my religious decisions for my children or shaving my mommy parts (yes, that's where they come from) in celebration of the departure from office of the one of the worst presidents ever, then that's my choice.

Priceless

"Mommy, do ya wanna see my great spin?"


At least twice a day Binny performs her great spin.
I drink it in, and take lots of pictures.